Present day networks, especially those carrying telecommunications traffic, often employ different types of communications media to carry information between an origin and a destination. For example, within the AT&T telecommunications network, fiber optic cables, copper cables, satellites and microwave stations collectively carry telecommunications traffic. In some instances, a telecommunication network may employ two different types of communications media in parallel between a pair of network nodes to allow traffic to be routed from one medium to another should one become unavailable because of a disruption or a lack of transport capacity. For example, within the AT&T network telecommunications, both an undersea fiber optic cable and a satellite link exist between Alaska and the continental United States. Thus, in theory, traffic that cannot pass on the undersea cable because of a disruption could be routed via satellite, avoiding blocked calls.
In practice, traffic restoration via satellite is usually not instantaneous. In many instances, the satellite may already be carrying traffic on an assigned transponder frequency. Thus, additional transponders may be necessary to carry the traffic unable to pass via the undersea cable. Assuming such transponders are even available, their use often requires re-orientation of the uplink and/or downlink earth stations which may take time, resulting in blocked calls. Often, restoration of full traffic occurs only after repair of the cable which may take days, even weeks to complete.
Thus, there is a need for a telecommunications network architecture that facilitates rapid restoration.